Dark Elf Assassins – 1995 and 2008

The two models being shared today are a pair that have been around for some time. The older model on the right, skulking with the rather chunky sword is from WHFB 4th Edition, circa 1995 – just when huge chunks of WHFB were getting a bit too chunky and Morley. I never especially liked this model, having picked him up to use with my 3rd Edition Blood Bowl Dark Elf team (which I still haven’t painted) and so he sat in limbo for… you know… twenty years. (FUCK, I am getting old!)

The much nicer model on the left is from 7th Edition. Apparently known as Khainite Assassin #2. I probably got him secondhand from eBay as well, and Stuff of Legends becomes useless the further into the 2000’s you head. He’s pretty clearly the precursor to the current plastic kit of an Assassin (Shadowblade?) leaping off a spire-rock because dynamic posing.

Despite being purchased for Blood Bowl, this guy had actually gotten to the point of being almost-painted. I’d painted him with D&D/Pathfinder in mind, and so he had been given dark blue (Drow) skin, and deep red-browns for his leather gloves and boots. When he got reassigned to the Dark Elf army, I needed to redo the deep blue shading I’d started on his cloak with a more sea green, and change his leathergoods to Aqua/Turquoise shades – and obviously redo his face as well.

Nothing fancy on his cloak. He’s an assassin, after all – and his cloak is there for practical purposes. I think the Turquoise shades have worked better than the dark blues that were there originally, and having come up this pleasingly, I know of some other purposes I’ll be using the same highlights in the near-ish future.

The flowers are a feature that I intend to use on figures from all of my Elven armies, which will be a small, unifying factor across the Dark, High and Wood brethren. Despite my snide remarks about Gary Morley, this model is actually an Aly Morrison sculpt.

The second model was started way back in 2013, shortly after we moved into this place and long before The War Room was converted into such, featuring a light box. A much more dynamic model, but without going to the point of ridiculousness, it was also a pleasure to paint – and the impetus for the repaint on the older model as well. I’m not 100% sure of the sculptor (Chris Fitzpatrick?), since GW stopped crediting their artists by this point. If anyone knows for sure, please do LMK and I’ll edit it in! Since he’s a 7th Edition figure, and GW released most of the models for an army alongside the Warhammer Armies volume, I’d say he’s pretty safely a 2008 release.

Having said that, the two of them sat on my painting desk for literally years until earlier this month, when I looked at the pair of them, each three-quarters-painted and made myself pull my finger out and get them both done. Which I managed to do in a very reasonable amount of time. That’s the trouble – I’m not playing Warhammer or KoW, etc very much at all these days, and so then my desk is covered in models – none of which have a particular pressing “need” to get finished and so I flit between a few minutes on this or that, and taking the 30 minutes or hour to finish a particular model or two becomes “too hard”, despite the pleasure that comes from completing a model.

Most of my Fantasy work over 2016 was focused on the Undead and Gondor armies – both of which now have tons of painted models and units, yet have tons still unpainted and unassembled – and two units of cavalry each half-painted). This year, I’ve made inroads on getting a Dwarf force to the point of functionality while mucking about with Orcs. I’ve got to get some lists written up again and focus on completing units to have more “finished” fantasy armies for Kings of War. Maybe then I can have the Elves up and running, even if only as a combined, pan-Elven force to start with.

In the meantime, if we need a Druchii or Drow Assassin for anything, at least we’re covered…

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12 thoughts on “Dark Elf Assassins – 1995 and 2008”

Mmmm!!! Hoody, sneaky and stabby! Nice combination 🙂 It’s great that even with the gap in years, they still clearly ‘belong’ and work well together… says a lot about the strength of the design I suppose!

Thanks Alex, though I think the only real link between them design wise is the use of a hooded cloak. The ’95 edition is pretty much a Dark Elf Warrior with the hooded cloak replacing his pointy hat, while the later model is much more specifically stylised (and spiky!), right down to his sexy thigh-boots! It’s more the paint that ties them together. 🙂

Thanks Subedai. It took a bit of wracking to work out a scheme that I liked that worked well for Dark Elves while avoiding the “usual” colours – especially the purples. While I think the purples often look awesome, I just wanted something different for my guys, and so the turquoise look with a lot of metallics mixed in – going from green-dominant to blue-dominant on different models was what I came up with. Now I just need to finish a few (a lot!) more models…

Thanks, as I mentioned to Subedai, I wanted to get away from the more “traditional Warhammer Dark Elf” colours while still keeping it in character. The older model is absolutely nothing special, but now it’s painted, I don’t have to concern myself with him any longer. 🙂

Not wanting to overly use the trope colours is something I’ve kept in mind for the Fantasy armies. I mean, the Undead are red/black/bone/metal, and the Gondorians are “as seen on TV”, and I’m tending towards red (or red-brown) as my spot colour for the Warhammer orcs but as long as not everything looks like was directly inspired by Warhammer Armies then I’m happy. Having said that, I’m simply trying to be a little different in places rather than a unique snowflake, so my High Elves are pretty much ripped off the World of Warcraft Blood Elves colour scheme, but red and gold make a nice contast to the typical White and Blue, so it works for me, and the Dark Elves follow the same theory.

Of course, the Wood Elves will be in naturalistic tones, because they’re about nature and blending in rather than Elven House Heraldry.

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